Talking with Thom Hartmann: “The People’s Fed,” Right-Wing Violence

June 11, 2014

Richard Eskow

The above interview with Thom Hartmann took place Monday night on “The Big Picture,” his television program. The first half of the discussion is based on a recent piece of mine about “The People’s Fed,” which said that:

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve was created to represent the economic sectors and portions of our population most directly affected by the central bank’s actions. Instead it’s comprised almost entirely of economists and lawyers who are associated with Northeastern institutions and the Washington, D.C. political class.

This has traditionally been the case under presidents of both parties, despite the fact that “by law, the (Board of Governors) appointments must yield a ‘fair representation of the financial, agricultural, industrial, and commercial interests and geographical divisions of the country,’ and no two Governors may come from the same Federal Reserve District.”

The Fed’s governing boards should more accurately reflect the people whose Congress created the Federal Reserve, as well as the economic constituencies it ultimately serves.

The second half of the discussion concerns the Las Vegas killers who were associated with the Cliven Bundy movement and were apparently right-wing extremists. The topic: Why is there a “zone of silence” around acts of right-wing terrorism?

“The Big Picture” is owned and produced by Thom Hartmann, syndicated nationally by RT and Free Speech TV. It reaches over 55 million TV households.